“As with many other airlines, some of our premium seats have in-flight entertainment systems that came with cameras installed by the manufacturer,” according to an airline spokesperson.

“None of these cameras were ever activated and we had no plans to use them in the future, however we took the additional step to cover the cameras. The cameras are a standard feature that manufacturers of the system included for possible future purposes such as video conferencing.”

Stickers were used to cover the cameras positioned below the video screens on United seatbacks.

In-flight entertainment systems used by other airlines also have cameras, including those operating on flights by Singapore Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines.

Singapore Airlines has assured passengers that the cameras have been disabled. None of these other airlines have yet followed United’s lead in covering up the cameras, however.